Tool Storey 3 D

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If you enjoyed the piece about the history of our tool shed in the Spring 2010 edition of the Weasel, then read on to be brought bang up to date. Prepare yourself for a rollercoaster ride of high stakes, dark characters and double crossings; I can't assure you that you won’t be disappointed.

New tool store "before"

The previous cliff-hanger was that we were due to move out of Brasenose Farm, but let me take you back a little bit further to ensure that the full tale is told. It was late September 2009 and I was planning to visit the tool shed at Brasenose Farm to sharpen blades like a good little tools officer. Little did I know it, but my courtesy text message to the resident ranger was to receive an unexpected reply: one which was set to change the face of OCV as I knew it. You may think I'm being over dramatic... and you'd probably be right. A few enquiries later, I had found out that the City Council were planning to sell off the farm, including the barn containing our tool shed!

Not knowing how long we'd have before being kicked out, the hunt was quickly on for a new home. Anthony Roberts did his best to find us an alternative Oxford City Council site, but the yard at nearby Westhill Farm was hard to get to, had no utilities and most importantly no building. Although we could have moved our existing tool shed there, I wasn't at all convinced it would be a match for both rain and vandals. The Parks Service headquarters at Cuttleslowe sounded ideal to this Summertown-dwelling tools officer, but sadly it was not to be.

The quest was brought to a sudden but joyful halt when I approached Mike Smart at Stansfeld Outdoor Education Centre. Although I'd led a couple of successful tasks there that year, it still felt cheeky asking if we could move our minibus and all of our tools onto his site and visit twice every Sunday. Yet not only did he offer us accommodation there and then without batting an eyelid, I even had a choice of outhouses! The cosy little workshop was tempting, but once I thought about how many hedgelaying materials we had on top of our wooden shed (yes, the stakes were high), it had to be the more capacious garage.

Before we could move in, Mike needed to clear-out some of his stuff to make room for us, and I set about making the building secure with shiny new latches and padlocks. Yet with no lighting and still in the throes of winter, we continued to hold-off... until... tragedy struck! The locks were changed at Brasenose Farm, making it impossible to bring the minibus and tools on task! Would we ever see our precious possessions again? Fortunately yes, once access had been hastily renegotiated. But the die had been cast, British Summer Time was upon us and our days there were numbered. Operation moving-the-tool-shed was a go.

New tool store "after"

And so it was that on the morning of 17 April 2010 a crack team of OCV stalwarts converged on Brasenose Farm for the great move. Tools were brought out of the shed, timber came down from the roof and the minibus was loaded up. We had to make several trips, each time involving getting from one side of the ring road to the other, unloading at Stansfeld, and coming back again (yup, double crossings). Our shed also had to be removed so down it came, panel by panel, being careful not to rip out the electric cables in the process. According to plan, by the end of the day every single tool was in its new home (along with our reconstructed table), our materials were stacked outside, and the minibus was nestling next to a greenhouse instead of its customary shipping container.

With new keys distributed and the leaders and drivers updated, the critical parts of the move were complete. The following Saturday the pieces of the old tool shed made their way over, courtesy of a borrowed furniture lorry. Well, most of them. The roof and floor were still too big, but after some delicate chainsaw wielding they became minibus sized pieces! The rest of the day's work saw the tool bays completed, a large shelf constructed, and the roof sealed - again with welcome support from familiar faces.

Work continues at the tool store, and in particular we still need to sort out lighting as the nights begin to draw in. I also need to put up the white laminated labels with the names of tools printed in black (got there eventually: dark characters). By now, many of you will have visited Stansfeld after tasks, and some of you might not even have realised until now that we haven't always kept our tools there. In all likelihood I suppose that we won't be there forever, but I very much hope it will be as long and as happy a tenancy as we enjoyed at Brasenose Farm.

Thanks to all the OCVers who gave up their Saturdays to help make the move as seamless as possible. Most of all, thanks to Mike Smart not only for giving us free use of his garage, but for his ongoing support and generosity.

Tim Evans

P.S. I hope you appreciated the puntastic headline and didn't think it was a spelling mistake. If you're still wondering why the 3 when it's only the second article about the tool store, I figured that we're now in our third proper tool store (at least in 'living' memory), plus everyone knows that 3D is cool.

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